Schenanigans

Attention: I apparently have great taste! Who knew? One of my more recent reads was just named to July’s Indie Next List!

If you are not familiar: its basically independent book store owners/ staff, voracious readers all- nominate and vote on a list of books to be highlighted each month with the general goal of picking great reads that may have gone under appreciated due to small publicity budgets, print runs or the next big Dan Brown novel coming out.

I have included the review posted on the Indie Next list below, but for my soap box i must say this book is BEAUTIFULLY written, fantastically enthralling and while you know that child prostitution is at its core, it is so much more about the strength of the human spirit and a stark reminder of the dirty, grimy side of life we so enjoy forgetting exists. As a bonus: Dr. Levine is donating all his U.S. proceeds from this book to help exploited children. It doesn’t say how, or with whom, but after reading this novel it will make you feel better.

The Blue Notebook: A Novel
by James A. Levine (Spiegel & Grau)
“How could James Levine, a doctor and medical researcher at the Mayo Clinic, capture the hidden life of a 15-year-old Indian prostitute? This fictional journal of Batuk, a precocious girl sold into sexual slavery, reveals a life few could imagine and depicts the power of youthful imagination to escape an intolerable reality.”
—Darwin Ellis, Books On The Common, Ridgefield, CT